Well it certainly has been a while hasn't it, I am sorry I haven't updated i so long, things have been pretty busy here and its been hard to find time to just sit and update here. Anyway it has been over a month and a half since my last update and let me tell you a lot of stuff has happened. To start we will go to the first weekend after my last update.
That weekend I went on a ski trip with the ski club, and guess where it was? It was in Torsby, Sweden and while they didn't have any snow it is home to one of the few places in Europe with a ski tunnel. Yes that is right I said ski tunnel, and for those of you who might be wondering what the heck it is well here is an explanation. It is essentially an underground tunnel where they make snow and have a cooling system that keeps the entire tunnel around two or three degrees below zero (Celsius). It was sweet but the loop they had was only about 1.3 km which means that we did a ton of laps. The weekend was a blast though, we skied about 6 hours total. It was awesome to be able to do some skiing so early in the year. Also because we were there from Saturday till Monday I didn't have school, hehehe.
Although Tuesday came and it was back to the regular schedule again. Had my first physics test that Wednesday, the first half of the test actually went really well, while the second off not so much, oh well. I ended up getting a 3- and while it is not that great I was surprised I managed a grade that high. That Thursday was a day called Operasjon Dagsverk which is a day where all the students at our school work or go door to door collecting money for a charity for a kindergarten in Columbia. I did some work at home which ended up me cleaning up the basement and raking leaves in the yard. Friday I had fagdag in biology which happened to be a trip to Oslo to see a museum and these climate rooms at one of the universities. Although it was really advanced Norwegian and very fast speaking people at all the places we went to so I didn't understand very much but oh well. After that it was off to fencing with one of the exchange students near by. It was a lot of fun and would love to do it again.
That Saturday it was off to Oslo for the day, my host family was going to do some shopping and I talked with another exchange student in Oslo so that we could hang out for a few hours while we were further north. Rainy day but it was fun, we just wondered around Oslo for a couple hours. Then it was back to Tønsberg for a Halloween party with some of my friends from school.
I wasn't able to dress up as much because I was dropped off without going home first, but my family had thought far enough ahead and packed this mask in when we left for Oslo. So I had a mask and my dark coat, the first thing I did was attempt to scare a couple people when I got to the house. Mission accomplished, I totally scared one of my friends who was tying one of his shoes by the door, which I proceeded to pound on as soon as I got there he turned around and saw the mask and freaked. I also was able to scare a couple girls that came later, I hid next to the door and when they opened it I jumped out, oooh good times.
Sunday was spent doing some roller skiing and just relaxing, nice day to just sit, not to cold and not to warm outside either. Not much interesting happened the next week just the usual stuff. Although one morning I was late to school because my alarm didn't go off, but thankfully my teacher was also late so it didn't matter very much.
The next weekend was also a lot of fun, met another exchange student in Oslo for the day (also my first time taking the train! It was nice but really expensive). We had a lot of fun just wondering around, stopped by to see the castle, missed the guard change by not very much at all, walked to Vigelandsparken and saw all the sculptures and everything again (for me at least).
We had an adventure just getting there because we were both pretty much just guessing our way to the park, but we did eventually find it and also somehow found our way back. We also walked past this little market thing in one neighborhood which was pretty interesting. That Sunday we made a trip out to one of the islands outside of Tønsberg and just walked around.
Again the next week wasn't to exciting, I had fagdag in math which meant a 3 hour test followed by another 3 hours of lessons, not fun to say the least. I talked with my family who also happened to be at my great aunt and great uncles house so it was cool to be able to talk with all of them. The weekend again was pretty nuts, Saturday we went to a city called Skein which is about an hour away to go to this baby blessing thing for Steinars nieces baby. Met his side of the family for the first time.
Sunday was the first ski race of the season (for the pros at least) shown on tv, the world cup opened the following weekend, this was pretty much a prep race to get out all the kinks before the WC started. It was mostly Norwegian skiers but there were quite a few foreign skiers too. I went to watch some of my friends jump into the ocean again, I ran down because everyone else wasn't home.
Nothing very exciting happened for a few days, and then on Thursday my alarm didn't go off, which meant me rushing to get everything ready and biking to school with my two backpacks (because I have my sports class on Thursdays) and sprinted to school. Somehow I managed to get to school and change just after our teacher finished talking about what we would be doing for the day.
I then proceeded to finish up my day of classes, biked through town on the way home to do some errands and then back to the house to pack for a weekend in the mountains. I packed really frantically when I got home because I had only like 30 minutes to get everything thing I needed packed into my bag before we left.
As we drove further north and inland we were seeing more snow and colder temperatures and by the time we finally got to Beitostølen, and the temperature finally reached 0 F (about -18 C). Everyone was like "oh my gosh it's so cold," and I was saying "YES, its finally colder out!" I thought it was hilarious, but by now I don't compare temperatures with people anymore because I feel a little stuck up by saying how cold I am used to it being during this time of year.
The rest of the weekend was filled with skiing, skiing and more skiing, I loved it. We were on a 5 km loop the whole time though, but it was still fun. We did some fun stuff, some hard stuff, some long stuff, and basically just had a good time. It was so nice to ski on real snow with at least semi cold conditions. Unfortunately we did have to leave and go back to snow less Tønsberg.
Most of the following week was pretty boring but Wednesday and Thursday (Thanksgiving!!) were a little hectic, because I was making Thanksgiving dinner for my family and a few of my friends. The first few days of the week I had spent gather ingredients that I needed and Wednesday night I made a few of the dishes as well. Wednesday I also went to a house of one of the other exchange students to just hang out and stuff, we ended up making some candy which was a lot of fun. When I got home is when I made a few of the items for Thanksgiving dinner.
Since I wouldn't be home from school till nearly 4 I asked Else-marie to make the last preparations and to put the turkey in the oven, I got home showered and finished the rest of the food. We ate around 7:30ish and it actually turned out really well.
Everyone thought it was great and they all had a good time, farmor (my host dads mother) also came over. It was a big hit and I was just happy because all the food tasted alright, because for those who don't know me to well, I have never really done any cooking, especially something like Thanksgiving dinner.
My friends had a good time, and so did I, plus they got to see a totally common American tradition. Although unfortunately it was back to school the next day, I also had to run some errands in town after school, plus I had to pack because we were going to Sweden for the weekend.
It was a fun day though, because we had our fagdag in Norwegian we went to see this movie that just came out about a month ago called Trolljegeren. Not a bad movie, the hard part however was writing a paper after it was finished, in Norwegian. Longest afternoon of my life, although somehow I managed almost 450 words I think, and it was my first essay in Norwegian (I used google translate a little for some bigger words but most of it I did without a translating program).
Finished up the day and was back home for another frantic packing session. Although thankfully I was able to leave school a little earlier so it wasn't as frantic as the last weekend. We left and drove to the hytte in Sweden.
Saturday we drove down to Göteborg for a shopping day, my host family was working on getting Christmas presents for people. Little did they know that I already have presents for everyone, hehehe. So I just got to wonder around the Göteborg shopping centers all day and look at stuff.
We met up later and went to this coffee shop for some food, afterwards they did some more shopping and I wondered around the city a little more, and got to see what it looked like at night. Anyway it was a really cool city and I am glad I got the time to look around some.
Sunday we just relaxed before heading home. We took the ferry to Sandefjord, and from the time we left the cabin to the time we got to Sandefjord it was snowing! We got off the ferry to find a good 6 inches of snow, and it was still snowing!!! We got home and unloaded the car, my host brother went straight out to play in the snow and I joined him a little while later.
I was so excited, plus I got to use my Mukluks for the first time since I bought them this summer. Eventually I had to go in though, because I did have school in the morning. So I had to call it quits after about an hour I think. This now brings me to this current week!
Nothing particularily interesting happened, although Tuesday in my sports class we went to the gym right by the school for a class in "Zumba." At the time I had no idea what it was, one of the other guys said and I quote "it's some kind of girly dance."
Little did we know that almost all of us would end up having a blast, although I don't think any of us are going to be pros at it though. Wednesday was pretty boring, Thursday I did have a test in my sports class, that was a little difficult to take.
The teacher had translated it for me which was nice, but there were some terms that he couldn't and I couldn't really figure out what they meant, so oh well. It went alright though, I also had my first time on skis here in Tønsberg yesterday which was nice. The weather wasn't to bad, about -13*C (about 8-9*F).
My host brother and his girlfriend are home for the weekend studying for finals next week, so it is kind of nice having some new faces in the house. Tomorrow I am going with the ski club to Sandefjord to do some skiing there. It has been really nice training with the team, after the various ski trips I have been feeling a lot better during our workouts and my endurance is finally starting to come back.
It is really nice when the trainer tells me that he is seeing improvements after nearly each workout. I am feeling a ton better exercising now, it has been good and I look forward to the rest of the winter.
Oh yeah, on the first of December everyone started their advent calendars, including my host family. So start the Norwegian Christmas traditions! I have been getting so excited for Christmas, and with the snow here it just makes it seem that much close. I just have to hope that it stays colder so that the snow will stay too.
Anyway thats what happened, sorry it has been so long. I will try and get on to update more often, probably after anything big/exciting happens, but we'll see how it goes. Thanks for reading and I will see you next time.
Hilsen,
Jon
